Home With You
by UnwieldyInk
Summary: "Everything was changing around Nico. His mom and older sister were gone for good, a younger sister had popped up, his father was constantly swinging from distant to sentimental. Even schoolwork was rapidly getting more and more difficult without Nico even noticing. But Will would always be there. Will would always be just the same." Childhood friends AU for AUctober!


Will and Nico didn't work together.

If they met now, Nico thought, they probably wouldn't be friends. The only reason they _were_ still friends is because they had been for so long that something would feel missing if Will wasn't there. They'd been friends since preschool; as soon as Nico moved into the house next to Will's, they were destined to be best buds. It was just easier for Nico's parents to dump him next door for a play date while taking Bianca places than to hire a babysitter. So they'd known each other as long as they both could remember.

But they weren't in preschool anymore. Things were different. Will was popular, and sporty, and strong, and smart, and kind, and liked by all, and Nico was… none of those things. Not by a long shot.

So they don't really work together. But they were together, all the time, just the same. Shoulder to shoulder at the bus stop, crouching over the same table to study together, even just sitting on the curb outside their houses in silence, with stolen cans of soda in their hands. Once they went to school, they didn't see each other much; Will had his friends and Nico had his seperate ones. But at home, they were together constantly. Just because that was how things had always been.

All these thoughts ran through Nico's head as he walked, painstakingly slow, from the bus stop to his house. Usually, Will walked with him, but the varsity player was at basketball practice, so Nico went alone. Will had been on his mind a lot recently, but Nico couldn't figure out why. Ever since the beginning of summer vacation, he'd started unconsciously noticing those whispered comments about Will's looks, thinking about Will even when he wasn't around. There was definitely something different now.

Eventually, Nico had decided that he was jealous of Will. That must have been it. After all, how could he not be? Will was perfect, and Nico was just Nico. He didn't want to be jealous of his best friend, but he supposed it was only a matter of time before the inconsistencies in their social statuses caught up with Nico's insecurities.

Except, whenever he saw Will, he didn't feel maliceful. In fact, his heart leapt up at the sight of him. So why had Nico been paying more attention to him recently?

He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he stepped through his front door. He cautiously took his shoes off, slipped off his backpack, and made his way upstairs. If he was lucky, he could get to his room without bumping into his dad, and be home free.

But of course he wasn't lucky. Halfway down the hallway, he spotted his dad in the T.V. room, holding up an embroidered dress. It left a sour taste in Nico's mouth.

Hades looked up at him. "Hello," he said quietly.

"Hi, dad."

"How was school?"

"Fine."

Hades' focus returned to the dress in his hands, and he paused before adding: "Bianca's."

"I know."

Hades' eyes flicked back up to meet Nico's. Nico didn't relent. It had been years since Bianca's death, and only now did their father begin to grieve? Nico was sure his gaze was nothing but steely. After a moment, Hades sighed, waving Nico off. Nico took the dismissal, quickly slipping into his bedroom and kicking a pillow that he had taped up to the wall specifically to be kicked. He knew himself well.

He didn't even know why he was so upset. Hades and he had never actually had a full conversation about Bianca; perhaps that was it. Maybe he felt entitled to grieve for his sister, and so no one else could do it, too. Nico didn't particularly care.

Bianca had been their parents' little prodigy. Piano recitals every other weekend, soccer practice Tuesdays and Saturdays, teachers praising her for a reading level way above her current age. Their mother chauffeured her around constantly, taking her to her million different after-school activities.

And she was happy, Nico thought, being like that. She liked being the overachiever. There was only one time he saw her get angry about it, when he was ten and she was eleven, and she threw her new dress that Momma had bought her on the floor. It was green, with white lace around the neckline and a big bow in the back. It was for her next piano recital. It was the one Father had been holding up to the light in the T.V. room. Nico didn't know what exactly Bianca and their mother had been arguing about, but he could hear them shouting. It ended with Bianca throwing her new dress and yelling that she was too old for their parents to be dressing her up and marching her around like she was on Toddlers In Tiaras.

That was only a few months before their mom died. Nico wondered if Bianca ever regretted that day.

Once Momma was dead, Bianca dropped most of her activities. Mom was gone and Dad was distant and someone had to look after her annoying little brother. So she dropped most of the things she did, for Nico.

As for how Nico reacted to it, well, the first few months after Momma died, he spent a lot of time over at Will's house. He just couldn't stand to be in his own, with the huge empty hallways and Father always sulking about in the shadows. Less than a year later, Bianca was dead, too, and suddenly he regretted spending so much time away from home.

Will reminded Nico of her a little bit, he thought. Just his constant determination to bite off more than he could chew. He did a million different things after school, too, and Nico watched it crash down on top of him a couple times.

Nico flopped down onto his bed with a sigh, fumbling for his phone. He pulled up his last text conversation with Will.

 **Will: Wanna eat lunch with us tomorrow?**

 **Nico: You and all of your jock friends? lol nah**

 **Will: Aw cmon, give them a chance**

 **Nico: I have to take a test anyways.**

 **Will: Okay. If you change your mind, the offer is always there**

Nico huffed. He really did have to take a test, but part of him wished he'd just ditched it and gone with Will instead. He glanced around, looking for something to take his mind off of Will. But his eyes fell on something else instead.

A pinboard on his wall detailed his childhood- and, by extension, Will's. There was the two of them, at five years old, grinning at the camera with chocolate-covered mouths and fudgesicles melting down their fists. And then when they were eight, at their third-grade class halloween party. Will had gone as a stormtrooper and Nico a pirate. God, they were both such cute little nerds. And then there was a picture from just last year, which Will's sister had taken of them. They were sitting side by side on the street, their backs to the camera as the sky turned a brilliant orange.

Something in Nico's heart twisted, and he reached out to pull the picture off of the board.

Everything was changing around him. His mom and older sister were gone for good, a younger sister had popped up, his father was constantly swinging from distant to sentimental. Even schoolwork was rapidly getting more and more difficult without Nico even noticing. But Will would always be there. That was why Nico had spent so much time with him after his mother died; Will would always be just the same.

Or at least, so Nico thought. But now, even his feelings about his best friend were beginning to change.


End file.
